Nut Free Macaron Recipe | substitute almond flour
This is a golden macaron. It is special because it contains no nuts. That’s right not a hint of almond meal or any other ground nuts or seeds. Many people have nut allergies and some just can not get hold of almond meal so they asked ‘ Can I substitute almond meal for wheat flour?‘ To which I would answer, ‘Almond meal is high in fat and protein and low in carbs, wheat flour is high in complex carbs, low fat and low protein so the substitution would not work’. But that got me thinking what else could we use.
I have read other recipes that use ground pumpkin seeds. I don’t grind my own almonds, I buy them as almond meal or flour so the thought of buying seeds and grinding them seemed like too much hard work. If you want to try that method, swap in equal quantities for the almond meal.
At first the only other things I could think of that were high protein and fat were also full of water, like egg yolks, which wouldn’t help. Then white chocolate came to mind – high fat, high protein and high sugar. Perhaps if I reduced the sugar in the recipe I could get the nutritional composition of the white chocolate to match the almond meal and it will work – may be!
A couple of trial runs and adjusting ingredient quantities and we have nut free macarons. Now let me warn you they look and taste great but they are not perfect they are a little hollow. If you are after perfect macarons then almond meal is the best way to go.
Nut Free Macaron Ingredients
140g (4.94 ounces) or 4 egg whites
72g (2.54 ounces) or 1/3 cup caster sugar
240g (8.47 ounces) finely grated white chocolate
120g (4.23 ounces) or 1 cup icing sugar sifted
Nut Free Macarons Directions
Whisk together your egg whites and sugar until stiff, add colour if desired and whisk through. Egg whites should be stiff enough that you can turn your bowl upside down and it will not spill out of the bowl.
Gently fold in your icing sugar and white chocolate. Once it is just combined continue to fold some more until some mixture dropped into the bowl very slowly melds down into the rest of the mixture. You do not want a runny mixture or your macarons will be flat. See the video for a visual example of what you are looking for.
Pour the mixture into a piping bag or ziploc bag with the corner cut off and pipe circles onto non-stick baking paper.
Bake at 150C (302 degrees Fahrenheit) for approximately 20 minutes. I like to bake on the top shelf for 15 and then move down for the last 5 – 10 as needed. Leave to cool on the paper and then carefully peel off.
Pair similarly sized macrons and fill with ganache. The recipe should make about 20 macarons.
Chocolate Ganache Recipe
150g (5.29 ounces) dark chocolate chopped
50g (1.76 ounces) or 31/2 tablespoons cream (35% fat)
Place chocolate in a bowl. Bring the cream to the boil and pour over the chocolate. Wait approximately 3 minutes for the chocolate to melt and then stir until smooth. Place in a ziplock bag in the fridge until firm enough to pipe – it thickens as it cools.
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Hi Ann, I had success with everything until it came time to add in the white chocolate and powder sugar. With the eggs and sugar, I had great peaks and could turn the bowl upside down and nothing would fall out. However, when I added the chocolate and powder sugar, the first folding made it very liquidy and I could not get it back to that stiffer consistency. Can you make a recommendation as to perhaps why this happened? It did sit free on the counter for about 10 minutes as I sifted everything…
Hi George, You have identified the problem. When you let the egg white mix sit for any length of time, you get liquid collecting at the bottom. The older the eggs are the quicker this will occur. Ann recommends sifting the the ingredients before you start. Hope ot works out better for you next time.
Hi Ann,
In the recipe, you state that we need, “72g (2.54 ounces) or 13 cup caster sugar”. I was wondering if the “13 cup” was a typo or something ’cause I wouldn’t want to use that much sugar when making these. I do enjoy your recipes/videos but 13 cups does seem a little odd..
It’s supposed to be 1/3 cups.
can i use microwave to make macaroons
Hi Hazirah, Unfortunately the microwave is unsuitable for this recipe.
I loved the idea of this recipe until I saw the substitute, I am unfortunate enough to be allergic to both nuts and white chocolate. Is there anything else that can be used instead? I can’t have pumpkin seeds either. Mother nature really didn’t like me.
Hi Ayla, Are you able to have Sunflower seeds? Basically you could use our normal Macaroon recipe and used a different kind of meal as a foundation. It just depends on what your allergy includes. If you think sunflower seed would be okay, try making the recipe with Sunflower meal.
Can I use milk or dark chocolate instead?
Hi Tiana, Ann hasn’t tried this, so you will need to experiment. In principle, it should be fine. Ann thinks that as the darker chocolate is less sweet, you may want to up the sugar quantity. Let us know how it turns out.
Hi I was wondering about the measurements. I’m from the US so what would the converted recipe be?
Hi Logan, The website has the measurements in oz for the US. We are slowly updating the quantities for the US.
Hello!
Thanks for this awesome recipe without nuts, it is very necessary for me!
I´d just like to know how many macarons I can make with one recipe?
Thanks a lot
Hi Michele, If you pipe the shells a similar size to those in the video, it should make 40 shells or 20 macarons.
Hi Ann
I’ve been following your blog as well as your youtube channel for well over a year by now, and although this is far from being the first recipe of yours that i have tried, it turned out to be the first one that failed… I have made many different macarons before, and when I saw this recipe that you posted I was very excited about completely cutting out the need for a ground nut/non wheat flour ingredient in the macarons however i was skeptical about the success of this recipe as white chocolate melts at a temperature way below 150 Celsius. I ended up trying this recipe and followed the steps as accurately as possible and was very dissapointed when i check on them just 5 minutes after they went into the oven, they had melted and congealed into an amorphous mess on my baking sheet.
Hi, I tried to make these for my french class, and I followed the directions as stated and they turned out as a sheet of crystallized sugar! I also had added pastel blue food colouring and it turned out as snot-green! I went back through the directions and I tried to find any mistakes I might have made, but found none. I was so disappointed with these and I was wondering if you know what might have gone wrong. Thank you so much and please respond.
that happened to me with the nut free macaroons I used pink food dye and they came out orangish and I had to bake them for much longer and they are really more merangueus rather than macaroons (pls excuse my spelling)
Try adding more air in the batch next time, that may be the cause of why they were so liquid. And the cause of youre macaroons turning green is because baked things always get a bit brownish. So blue + brown = Green!
I wander if coconut flour can be used as a substitute to almond flour …
Im pretty sure that it can because on Google it said that coconut flour can be replaced with almond flour and the other way around but you should probs check on that
Hi ann I’m a really big fan I love all your sweet treats but I had one question, could you use regular milk or dark chocolate for. The macaroons because where I’m from I can’t get hold of white chocolate. Only regular milk or dark chocolate so can I use this to make these macaroons. Please please please please please please please please please answer this. I really need to know.
I used granulated sugar as a substitute for the caster sugar but blended it before hand and when I whisked it with the egg whites it wouldn’t become stiff. Why is that??
here is a video from food network. It is Paula Dean on how to whip egg whites. There are quite a few things that can go wrong with egg whites. hope this helps
I tried this about 5 times and every time they went in the oven at the temp you said, they discoloured and burnt but didnt cook on the inside. :'(
can i substitute white chocolate formilk chocolate?
I tried this recipe, I used white chocolate chips. I thought maybe I could crush them into fine grains but it didn’t work so I just stuck them together (no microwave or heating, they just melted after I attempted to break them apart in a food processor) and formed a block where I put it in the freezer. I then took the block of white chocolate and grated it into fine chocolate. I did not over mix, as the mixture was extremely thick (but perfect) when I piped it onto my tray. But the minute I put it in the oven, the whole macaron just melted into a puddle (like water!) it tasted great but I think the chocolate melts and turns into a liquid? Please help thanks so much
Can I substitute the almond meal with oatmeal?
no sorry Loretta
Do you have to add the chocolate? Or is it just a added flavour?
yes you have to add the chocolate, it’s replacing the protein and fat of the almond meal
I did it with out the choc but they turned into merangues
Was ur egg and sugar mix more foamy without the chocolate? Mine is foam but not like dough material
When you sub almond meal for the white choc are the macaroons still soft and chewy or are they crisp?
they’re a bit drier than the normal macarons
Hey! 🙂
Thanks for the lovely recipe but I have a few questions:
1l will normal chocolate do? (Something like a Cadbury, maybe?)
2) Also, does the microwave require to be preheated? At what temperature?
Waiting for a reply. Please reply ASAP as I’m planning on baking these tomorrow xx
Thanks!
same question
is anyone else from America and have a good converter from grams/ounces to cups? I’m very bad at converting and there is not much to look at online. And this is the perfrect recipe, I can’t seem to find almond flour anywhere. Thank you so much Ann, you recipies are a life-saver!
try Whole foods or Amazondotcom
Hi Ann,
So I don’t need to use Almond Flour in the macron recipe? I can substitute it with White Chocolate or Normal Chocolate?
Thank you 🙂
Yes that is correct, this recipe has been adjusted to work with the chocolate, you can’t just swap it out in any recipe for macaroons.